Wednesday, July 16, 2014

On this day in 1945, the Potsdam Conference—sometimes known as Berlin Conference of the Three Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and UK—got underway to determine the fate of Nazi Germany following the conditional surrender of the country.
The conference, which saw the coming together of UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Harry S. Truman and Russia's leader Joseph Stalin, took place from July 17 to August 2 at Cecilienhof Palace (home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern) in Potsdam, Germany.

Alongside Churchill was would-be British Prime Minister Clement Atlee, whose Labour Party would soon defeat Churchill in that year's general election. As a result, Atlee would take Churchill's place at the conference later in the proceedings.

Other goals of the conference—aside from imposing punishments on Germany—were to establish post-war order, to discuss peace treaty issues, and to counter the effects of the war.

Ultimately, the leaders would agree on numerous actions to be taken against Germany, including the scaling back of its borders, the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, and the reversion of all German annexations in Europe.

As a British expat living in the United States, I feel it is important to understand the shared history of our two nations. If you feel the same way, follow my daily history reports by clicking here.

This article was written by Laurence Brown. Laurence is a British expat living in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a contributor for BBC America and has written for Anglotopia. He is Editor-in-chief of Lost in the Pond and loves nothing more than to share these articles with anglophiles, expats, and other interested parties on social media. Follow Lost in the Pond on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.